Depending on which model you order, the MSI Aegis Ti PC will have an i7-6700K or i5-6600K and a pair of either GTX 1080s or 1070s. The model which shipped to TechPowerUp for testing sported a pair of M.2 Samsung 950 PROs and 32GB of DDR4-2400, along with the i7-6700K and GTX 1080s of course. The unique looking enclosure is VR Ready, in that there are USB and HDMI ports in the front to let you easily attach your VR goggles and is more than powerful enough to power said device at high settings. If you would prefer to spend $3000 on a configured gaming rig with some interesting features as opposed to building one yourself, pop over for a look at the full review.

"MSI sent us their latest fully featured PC, the Aegis Ti, to take a look at. This PC departs from the "traditional box" design in a big way and is ready to support not just one but two GTX 1080s! It's VR ready, including an HDMI port in front and dual M.2 drives, which can be configured in RAID, making it ready for whatever you want to throw at it."

Oculus has announced an upcoming pre-order date for 'Oculus Ready PCs' from mainstream manufacturers, and these will be bundled with the Rift VR headset (and everything that comes with it).

(Image credit: Oculus)

“Today we’re excited to introduce the first Oculus Ready PCs from ASUS, Alienware, and Dell! These PCs have been battle tested and certified by Oculus to deliver an incredible Rift experience. We’re also thrilled to announce that starting February 16 at 8am Pacific Time, you can pre-order Oculus Ready PC and Rift bundles from Best Buy, Amazon, and theMicrosoft Store, starting at $1499 USD for a limited time only.

All bundles include an Oculus-certified PC and everything that comes with Rift – the headset, sensor, remote, an Xbox One controller, EVE: Valkyrie Founder’s Pack, and Lucky’s Tale!

Pre-orders for Oculus Ready and Rift bundles will ship in limited quantities to select countries and regions from retail partners starting in April.”

So what kind of gaming system are you getting for $1499? Of the ‘Oculus Ready’ PCs, the baseline specs across the board are an Intel Core i5-6400 processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 GPU, along with 8 GB of system memory. This is in keeping with Oculus’ published specifications from last summer: “The recommended PC specification is an NVIDIA GTX 970 or AMD 290, Intel i5-4590, and 8GB RAM."

Including the Rift VR bundle makes the price tag sound a lot nicer for what is otherwise a pretty basic gaming setup, as Rift costs $599 on its own. Still, is it worth $900 for a Core i5/GTX 970 gaming system? Factoring in a Windows license and all parts it's not a terrible value proposition, though most early adopters of this VR tech will likely not be starting completely from scratch.

A quick check on Amazon for the first system bundle listed shows “Currently Unavailable”, as pre-orders begin February 16 at 8:00am PST. You’ll be waiting even longer to have product in hand as the actual release date is April 23.

Lenovo has partnered with Razer for co-branded Razer Edition computers, which will be special versions of Lenovo’s Y series gaming systems. Lenovo says the first device will be officially announced at CES, with a prototype on display at DreamHack Winter 2015 in Sweden.

These upcoming products will clearly add some style (and color) to Lenovo's gaming computers, and while thus far only this desktop concept has been shown the Y-series from Lenovo includes gaming laptops as well, which presumably will receive the Razer treatment going forward. It is notable that the concept incorporates multiple colors with its lighting effects (which should be customizable) considering Razer is known for a black and green color scheme.

"PC gaming today offers a rich and immersive experience – thanks in part to cutting-edge graphics performance, superior processing power, and peripherals designed specifically for gaming. Lenovo will employ its system design and engineering expertise, while Razer will enhance the immersive experience for gamers. All forthcoming Lenovo Razer Edition products will be co-branded and reflect the edgy Lenovo Y series look and feel with iconic Razer elements like customizable Chroma lighting effects."

The details as far as specs and configuration options for the desktop shown are not known, and this seems to be primarily a new branding/style for the Y-series line. More might be known after DreamHack, the event which calls itself "the world's largest digital festival", which runs November 26 - 29 in Jönköping, in the south of Sweden.

Gaming PCs are often misunderstood. Many of our viewers will probably build their own from their personal selection of parts. If you would like to have someone else handle it, then an oft dismissed option is going through a system builder. If you find an option that is in your budget and has the performance you desire, then it is perfectly acceptable to buy it.

The ROG G20 Gaming Desktop can be customized with options which range up to an Intel Core i7 with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780. It is designed to be quiet, with expected noise at around 23-25 dbA (it is unclear whether this is measured idle or under load). While it has two fans, it also uses "natural convection" cooling, a process which uses the excess heat to make hot air rise, which is replaced by cool air that cools the components.

Yup, the PC cools itself with the air motion caused by its own heat.

After customizations, the ROG G20 Gaming Desktop is expected to retail for $800-$1700, depending on what options the user selects, and be available in late Q3, for North Americans.

The other PC is the ROG GR8 Gaming Desktop. This device will include an Intel Core i7 and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti. Despite its form factor, a side panel allows user access to RAM and storage. It has Gigabit Ethernet and built-in 802.11ac wireless. While it obviously has HDMI outputs, it also includes DisplayPort.

ASUS does not currently have an expected price range, but it will also be available Q3, for North Americans.

Xidax Performance PC, a new boutique PC vendor founded in early 2013 has announced that it is now accepting Bitcoin for payment of its custom-built gaming computers. Reportedly in response to customer demand, Xidax has added bitcoin to its payment options, which are available upon configuring a PC on the website.

Xidax Executive Operations Officer Zack Shutt has stated the following in a press release:

“We will do whatever it takes to make custom PC buying easier and give Xidax customers more options,” said Shutt. “We’re intrigued by the growing bitcoin phenomenon and we are happy to provide bitcoin users an easy, secure way to order a custom built PC.”

The bitcoins are handled through a bitcoin payment processor where it can then be converted back to USD (as Xidax is a US-based company). It is interesting to see a PC vendor accepting Bitcoin as it is now possible to purchase an entire, custom built, PC from a major company using funds gathered from mining on a PC (albeit alt-coins converted to BTC or a stockpile of BTC from when GPU mining was still effective). More options are nice, and bitcoin does offer a secure way to pay free of high fees from the likes of Paypal and credit card processors.

What do you think about Xidax accepting bitcoin? Will it add more credibility and/or usefulness to the digital cryptocurrency?

The boutique PC vendor iBUYPOWER announced a new small form factor gaming computer at CES 2013. The new Revolt gaming PC features a custom white and black chassis with tweaked ventilation and a customizable lighting system. The Revolt comes in one of three base flavors, upon which you can customize to add a better GPU, more memory, additional storage or a caching SSD, a faster processor, and a closed loop liquid cooling system (the top-end option is the NZXT Kraken with 140mm radiator) for the CPU. iBUYPOWER will even overclock the system for you up to 20% for a fee ($49).

The systems come with a plethora of USB ports, two USB 3.0 ports, dual DVI outputs, analog audio jacks, S/PDIF, SD card slot, and PS/2 port. In that respect, it is definitely more PC than the console that the small form factor case would leave admirers of your AV setup to believe. You can add up to 1TB of mechanical storage, an Intel Core i7-3770K processor, and a single GTX 680 4GB graphics card on the top end with all customizations.

While the system uses mini-ITX motherboards, users are able to otherwise use full size components which does leave room for upgrades. The one big compromise is the power supply in that the upper limit from iBUYPOWER is a 500W “server class” unit that is smaller than traditional ATX power supplies that enthusiasts are used to. And that generally means smaller fans that can be noisy.

The table below details the base specifications of the three Revolt gaming PC SKUs. Each build can be customized from there.

Revolt R320

Revolt R550

Revolt R570

Processor

Core i3-3220

Core i5-3550P

Core i5-3570K

RAM

4GB DDR3 @ 1600 MHz

4GB DDR3 @ 1600 MHz

4GB DDR3 @ 1600 MHz

Graphics

Intel HD 2500

NVIDIA GTX 650 1GB

NVIDIA GTX 660 2GB

Motherboard

ASRock B75M-ITX

IBP-Z77E/S

ASRock B75M-ITX

Hard Drive

500GB

500GB

500GB

Optical

Sony slot loading DVD

Sony slot loading DVD

Sony slot loading DVD

Pricing (base)

$499

$649

$899

The Revolt is up for pre-order now and is expected to ship sometime in February 2013. The Revolt R320, R550, and R570 gaming computers start at $499, $649, and $899 respectively.

Valve recently released a beta update for its Steam client that allows users to remotely install games to their local machine using the steampowered.com website.

After installing the beta update to the local Steam client (Steam > Settings > Beta Participation), just leave the client logged in on your machine. Then navigate to Community page of the Steam website. After that, click on the Games category where the website will then list all the games tied to your Steam account. If you have a game you want to download and install while you are away, just hit the install button to the right of the game’s name.

This is certainly an interesting feature for some, especially if you happen to be on vacation during a Steam Holiday Sale! (hehe). More details on the process can be found here. Is this a feature you’ll be using?